Hillary Clinton will stay in hospital for New Year after blood clot is found following concussion

New fears for Hillary Clinton as doctors reveal blood clot is located between her brain and skullSecretary of state hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian hospital after follow-up exam found the clotWas treated for a concussion earlier this month after fainting while she battled a stomach virusDoctors expect a full recovery and say there has been no brain damage

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UPDATED:

04:06 GMT, 1 January 2013

The blood clot that sent Hillary Clinton to the hospital on Sunday is located between her brain and her skull behind her right ear, it was revealed this afternoon.

The Secretary of State's doctors say they found the clot in a large vein in her head – though it is in a blood vessel that runs across the surface of her brain and is not in the brain itself.

Doctors said Clinton has suffered no brain damage or stroke and that she is expected to make a full recovery.

Scroll down to see the media vigil outside of Clinton's Hospital in NYC

Distraught: Chelsea Clinton, seen here in a 2007 file photo, was seen looking upset as she left her mother's hospital on Monday

'In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff,' Drs Lisa Bardack and Gigi El-Bayoumi said in a statement.

A clot occurs when a blockage builds up, either from partial thrombus (coagulated blood) or an outside compression. When the vein becomes blocked, the coagulated blood may extend to veins draining the area, which could lead to a lack of oxygen and tissue death.

For Clinton, 'the particular vein they're talking about, there are enough other areas for the blood to travel through so it doesn't build up in the brain,' Dr Sanjay Gupta told CNN.

The condition can be treated with blood thinners administered over several months until the clot breaks down.

A distraught-looking Chelsea Clinton
visited her mother in the hospital this afternoon as she recovered from the clot, which stems from a concussion
earlier this months.

The former First Daughter was seen walking out of New York-Presbyterian Hospital looking troubled.

Her mother is likely to ring in the New Year from her hospital suite so her doctors can keep a close eye on her condition.

Clinton, 65, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and CBS New York reports that doctors want to monitor her for at least another 48 hours.

Doctors are keeping her under their watchful eye as they adjust the dose of her anti-clotting medication.

Chelsea, who was spotted by the New York Daily News, was to first member of Clinton's family to be seen publicly at the hospital. There is no word on the whereabouts of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Chelsea, 32, a special correspondent for NBC News, looked upset as she left the hospital – cell phone in hand. She ignored questions from a reporter and went back inside.

Aides and doctors say Clinton contracted a stomach virus in early December and became dehydrated, then fainted, fell and hit her head on December 9.

She was diagnosed with a concussion on December 13 and hasn't been seen in public since.

The seriousness of a blood clot 'depends
on where it is,' said Dr Gholam Motamedi, a neurologist at Georgetown
University Medical Center who was not involved in Clinton's care.

Political force: Clinton is known as President Obama's most popular cabinet members – and among the names mentioned for a possible 2016 presidential run

Medical care: Clinton was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital so doctors can monitor her medication over the next 48 hours

'In the course of a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday, the scan revealed that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed.

This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear. It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage.

To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the Secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established.

In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff.'

The new health scare may bring back
some painful memories for the former first lady, who suffered a large
blood clot in her leg back in 1998.

In a 2007 interview with the New York Daily News, Clinton called the 1998 clot 'the most significant health scare I've ever had.'

Most clots in the legs are
treated with six months of blood thinners to allow them to dissolve on
their own and to prevent further clots from forming, he said.

A clot in a lung or the brain is more
serious. Lung clots, called pulmonary embolisms, can be deadly, and a
clot in the brain can cause a stroke.

Clinton's illness led her to cancel an
overseas trip and scheduled testimony before Congress about the attack
on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

When her absence was reported, several pundits and newspapers accused Clinton of making her illness seem worse than it was to dodge questions from lawmakers over the consulate attack, which claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The New York Post called her concussion a 'head fake.'

Florida Rep Allan West said Clinton had a case of the 'Benghazi flu,' while Fox News contributer Charles Krauthammer dubbed it an 'acute Benghazi allergy.'

First family: Mrs Clinton is pictured with daughter Chelsea Clinton and husband Bill during the closing Plenary session of the seventh Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative last year

Reines said doctors will continue to assess Clinton's condition, 'including other issues associated with her concussion.'

Earlier this week, The National Enquirer
reported that brain cancer was behind Mrs Clinton's health problems and
that she was facing a barrage of medical tests to confirm the
diagnosis.

But a spokesman for the Democrat labelled the claims 'absolute nonsense' and insisted Clinton was recovering well from the fall and subsequent concussion.

Only days before her concussion Clinton had said she was in excellent health during an interview with Barbara Walters.

HILLARY'S DIAGNOSIS: TREATING TRANSVERSE SINUS VENOUS THROMBOSIS

Hillary Clinton has a blood clot located in the vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear, a condition called transverse sinus venous thrombosis.

The transverse sinus is located beneath the brain and allows blood to drain from the back of the head. It is the most common sites for clots inside the head, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

A clot occurs when a blockage builds up, either from partial thrombus (coagulated blood) or an outside compression. When the vein becomes blocked, the coagulated blood may extend to veins draining the area, which could lead to a lack of oxygen and tissue death.

For Clinton, 'the particular vein they're talking about, there are enough other areas for the blood to travel through so it doesn't build up in the brain,' Dr Sanjay Gupta told CNN.

Symptoms and signs can include headache, nausea, vomiting and seizures, although the condition was detected in Clinton with a routine MRI scan following her treatment for concussion.

Doctors questioned whether this concussion, paired with the fact Hillary had a similar clot in her leg in 1988, led to the condition.

'You don't typically see blood clots forming in veins after this sort of concussion,' Dr Gupta said. 'She is somebody who has formed these blood clots before. There are some people who more likely develop blood clots. Does she clot more vigorously than normal That with the brain injury – the concussion – could have led to it.'

The condition can be treated with blood thinners administered over several months until the clot breaks down.

Other treatments include using a shunt to drain pressure on the brain or surgery – yet doctors said neither are necessary for Clinton.

'The most concerning thing was… the fact that this could be a blood clot pushing on her brain,' Dr Gupta said. 'That's not what this is. You wouldn't treat something like that with blood thinners. It's not a mass or a collection of blood pushing on the brain but it is something you'd want to address fairly quickly.'

Detractors have claimed Clinton's advancing age and health make her too old to realistically serve as a two-term president were she elected in 2016.

'I am, thankfully, knock on wood, not only healthy, but have incredible stamina and energy,' Clinton told Barbara Walters.

Clinton has a history of fainting, having experienced a brief spell in in 2005 during an appearance before a women's group in Buffalo.

The former first lady is expected to step down from her role as Secretary of State in the beginning of 2013 when President Obama begins his second term.

At a State Department press conference in January 2012, she announced that she would be stepping down from the 'high wire of American politics' after 20 years as first lady, a senator from New York, and finally U.S. Secretary of State.

She told reporters at the press conference that 'it would be a good idea to find out how tired I really am.'